IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedpwp/19-42.html

Localized Knowledge Spillovers: Evidence from the Spatial Clustering of R&D Labs and Patent Citations

Author

Listed:
  • Kristy Buzard
  • Gerald A. Carlino
  • Jake Carr
  • Robert M. Hunt
  • Tony E. Smith

Abstract

SUPERCEDES EORKING PAPER 17-32 Buzard et al. (2017) show that American R&D labs are highly spatially concentrated even within a given metropolitan area. We argue that the geography of their clusters is better suited for studying knowledge spillovers than are states, metropolitan areas, or other political or administrative boundaries that have predominantly been used in previous studies. In this paper, we assign patents and citations to these newly defined clusters of R&D labs. Our tests show that the localization of knowledge spillovers, as measured via patent citations, is strongest at small spatial scales and diminishes with distance. On average, patents within a cluster are about two to four times more likely to cite an inventor in the same cluster than one in a control group. Of import, we find that the degree of localization of knowledge spillovers will be understated in samples based on metropolitan area definitions compared to samples based on the R&D clusters. At the same time, the strength of knowledge spillovers varies widely between clusters. The results are robust to the specification of patent technological categories, the method of citation matching, and alternate cluster definitions.

Suggested Citation

  • Kristy Buzard & Gerald A. Carlino & Jake Carr & Robert M. Hunt & Tony E. Smith, 2017. "Localized Knowledge Spillovers: Evidence from the Spatial Clustering of R&D Labs and Patent Citations," Working Papers 19-42, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedpwp:19-42
    DOI: 10.21799/frbp.wp.2019.42
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/working-papers/2019/wp19-42.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.21799/frbp.wp.2019.42?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jingbo Cui & Tianqi Li & Zhenxuan Wang, 2023. "Research collaboration beyond the boundary: Evidence from university patents in China," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 674-702, June.
    2. Zhang, Zhanyu & Cao, Jingdong & Ma, Ruihao & Feng, Yiqiang, 2025. "Digital economy policies and corporate technology spillovers: A data-driven perspective," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    3. Georgios Tsiachtsiras & Deyun Yin & Ernest Miguelez & Rosina Moreno, 2022. ""Trains of Thought: High-Speed Rail and Innovation in China"," IREA Working Papers 202220, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Nov 2022.
    4. Giuseppe Calignano, 2022. "Not all peripheries are the same: The importance of relative regional innovativeness in transnational innovation networks," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 276-312, March.
    5. Chattergoon, B. & Kerr, W.R., 2022. "Winner takes all? Tech clusters, population centers, and the spatial transformation of U.S. invention," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(2).
    6. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/32ctbi8fbq8j5aom2j69qam6tf is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Mounir Amdaoud & Nadine Levratto, 2024. "Sectoral Diversity and Local Employment Growth in France," Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE), issue 544, pages 75-94.
    8. Zehra Usta & Martin Andersson & Katarzyna Kopczewska & Maria Kubara, 2025. "Identifying Catalyst Technologies in Clusters with Unsupervised Machine Learning. An application on patent clusters in the UK," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2528, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Aug 2025.
    9. Ludovic Dibiaggio & Benjamin Montmartin & Lionel Nesta, 2018. "Regional Alignment and Productivity Growth," GREDEG Working Papers 2018-18, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    10. Wonsang Ryu & Thomas H. Brush & Joonhyung Bae, 2023. "How agglomeration affects alliance governance and innovation performance: The role of cluster size," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 297-310, January.
    11. Pu Liu & Yingying Shao, 2022. "Innovation and new business formation: the role of innovative large firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 691-720, August.
    12. Adelheid Holl & Bettina Peters & Christian Rammer, 2023. "Local knowledge spillovers and innovation persistence of firms," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 826-850, August.
    13. Zhai, Xueqi & An, Yunfei, 2021. "The relationship between technological innovation and green transformation efficiency in China: An empirical analysis using spatial panel data," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    14. Sugam Agarwal & Smruti Ranjan Behera, 2022. "Geographical concentration of knowledge and technology-intensive industries in India: empirical evidence from establishment-level analysis," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 513-552, December.
    15. Xionghe Qin & Dong Zhang & Debin Du, 2025. "Understanding the Impact of Spatial Externalities on Two-Stage R&D Efficiency: Empirical Evidence from 285 Chinese Prefecture-Level Cities," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(2), pages 8308-8342, June.
    16. Xin Dai & Jie Tang & Qin Huang & Wenyue Cui, 2023. "Knowledge Spillover and Spatial Innovation Growth: Evidence from China’s Yangtze River Delta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-26, September.
    17. Raquel Ortega-Argilés & Pei-Yu Yuan, 2024. "Do UK Research and Collaborations in R&I Promote Economic Prosperity and Levelling-up? An analysis of UKRI funding between 2004-2021," Working Papers 046, The Productivity Institute.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedpwp:19-42. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Beth Paul (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbphus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.